>
> The November Election is About Voting to Defend Democracy
>
> For Immediate Release: Monday, August 20, 2012.
> Contact: Maria Svart 212-727-8610; Duane Campbell 916-361-9072
>
> In a statement [see below] issued by its national political
> committee, the Democratic Socialists of America calls upon the
> nation and DSA members to defend democracy by participating in
> the critical 2012 elections. The statement says, "The Left
> confronts a Republican Party thoroughly controlled by right-
> wing forces that are determined to cement a long-term control
> of the federal government and a majority of the states."  The
> statement notes that after the 2010 Congressional elections,
> "A newly established Republican political control over several
> Midwestern states turned into a sweeping assault on public
> sector unions and on the social safety net."
>
> The statement says "A major weapon of the Radical Right is an
> unprecedented flood of money from super-wealthy individuals
> and corporations into the political arena, buying influence
> and votes on a massive scale."
>
> Joe Schwartz, chair of DSA's national political committee,
> criticizes the Democratic Party for its past tepid response to
> the Right Wing resurgence saying, "when the country cried out
> for a vigorous defense against the ravages created by Wall
> Street greed, Obama's economic advisors (largely drawn from
> Wall Street) extended the Bush administration's bailout of the
> banks and financial elite without extracting a return in
> restored, strict financial regulation."
>
> The statement calls upon DSA members to work with labor
> unions, campus groups, the NAACP and others to "work against
> all forms of voter suppression. " They note, "The first task
> of a movement to defend democracy is to work for maximum voter
> turnout in the 2012 election."
>
> Noting that the Left proved too weak to force the first Obama
> administration to respond to popular needs, the statement
> recognizes that labor organizations, along with minority,
> feminist, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered groups -
> as well as many DSA members - will work hard to re-elect
> President Obama, largely because a Romney administration would
> cause havoc to the lives of the majority of Americans.  It
> also calls for work to elect or reelect members of the
> Congressional Progressive, Black, and Hispanic Caucuses, as
> well as putting more pro-labor people in state legislatures.
> Special attention is called to several races including
> independent candidate Bernie Sanders in Vermont.
>
> Maria Svart, national director of DSA, urges building
> coalitions to oppose further cuts to social spending and
> supporting movements capable of pressuring whichever party is
> in power.  DSA argues these cuts can be avoided if "Congress
> reversed the Bush and Reagan income tax-cuts for the top 2
> percent, restoring 1960-era corporate tax rates and slashing
> wasteful defense spending."
>
> "This is a year," the statement concludes, "to take the
> 'democratic' part of our democratic socialism very seriously."
>
> Please see the complete statement including budget
> alternatives below.
>
> DSA, the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist
> International, is the largest socialist political organization
> in the country, with more than 6,000 members and active locals
> in more 40 U.S. cities and college campuses.
>
> More information on DSA is available at its website,
> www.dsausa.org. The complete statement is on the website at
> http://www.dsausa.org/NewsFromDSA/2012/16aug2012.htm
>
> Persons available for press comments.
> Maria Svart (through Aug. 24). (212) 727-8610.
> Joe Schwartz. (605) 592- 8255.   [log in to unmask]
>
> ====
>
> Complete statement;
>
> The National Political Committee of Democratic Socialists of
> America
>
> August, 2012.
>
> I. The Threat of Right-Wing Hegemony
>
> The 2012 election poses an extreme challenge to the future
> prospects for democracy in the United States. This threat
> demands the focused attention of the broad Left - the labor
> movement, communities of color, feminists, the LGBTQ
> community, environmentalists and peace activists. The task for
> the U.S. Left is two-fold.  First, we must defeat the far-
> Right threat to democracy.  Second, we need to build a
> grassroots, organized Left capable of fighting the corporate
> interests that dominate the leadership of both major political
> parties.
>
> The Left confronts a Republican Party thoroughly controlled by
> right-wing forces that are determined to cement long-term
> control of the federal government and of the majority of
> states.  Its agenda is to extend the reign of the corporate
> oligarchy over the whole of American society from top to
> bottom. The wish list of the 1% includes dismantling not only
> Social Security and Medicare, but all government programs
> designed to benefit the large majority of people - the 99%.
> This reactionary plan intends to repeal not only the New Deal
> and the Great Society, but also the reforms of the Progressive
> Era and the post-Watergate legislation of the 1970s. A Romney
> victory would likely be accompanied by Republican control of
> both the Senate and House, as well as the Supreme Court. Such
> a governing majority would endeavor to pass the reactionary
> Ryan budget, deny federal funding for women's reproductive
> health, wage a sustained and fundamental attack on the rights
> of workers and unions, and overturn already weakened federal
> civil rights laws.
>
> A major weapon of the Radical Right is an unprecedented flood
> of money from super-wealthy individuals and corporations into
> the political arena, buying influence and votes on a massive
> scale. This intervention has been enabled by a long series of
> decisions by the Supreme Court, culminating in the Citizens
> United decision (and the recent Montana case) that essentially
> encourage buying electoral results through massive negative
> advertising - itself aimed at suppressing voter turnout -
> under the guise of "free speech."
>
> Another right-wing tactic is to suppress voting by African-
> Americans, Hispanics, students and poor people generally,
> under the guise of preventing non-existent "voter fraud." New
> forms of photo ID requirements and restrictions on early
> voting and independent voter registration efforts threaten to
> remove millions of potential Democratic voters from the rolls.
> This is part of a Republican racial strategy to convince swing
> white voters that their economic distress is caused not by a
> predatory corporate elite but by alleged government hand-outs
> to undeserving poor people of color.
>
> A third assault is to further weaken unions, particularly in
> the public sector, by eliminating collective bargaining and
> discouraging membership and imposing onerous new restrictions
> on the use of union dues and agency fee payments in political
> campaigns. Since unions, especially public sector unions, are
> a major source of political opposition to right-wing causes
> and campaigns, the Right is consciously out to destroy their
> very existence.
>
> II. The Tepid Democratic Response
>
> How can such a radical restructuring of American politics and
> policy, one that benefits the plutocracy at the expense of the
> majority, have a real prospect of success in 2012?
>
> One reason is that the national leadership of the Democratic
> Party is not a consistent, credible champion for the interests
> of the majority. The top of the party serves the interests of
> its corporate funders over the needs of the party's mass base
> of trade unionists, people of color, feminists and other
> progressives. Thus, when the country cried out for a vigorous
> defense against the ravages created by Wall Street greed,
> Obama's economic advisors (largely drawn from Wall Street)
> extended the Bush administration's bailout of the banks and
> financial elite without exacting a return in restored, strict
> financial regulation.  The administration also failed to take
> effective measures against foreclosures and job losses
> associated with the crisis.  Republicans and conservative
> Democrats blocked any more far-reaching proposals, like those
> of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Congressional
> Progressive Caucus. Furthermore, in a misguided effort to
> appear as a "strong" foreign policy leader, the president
> unnecessarily extended the failed war in Afghanistan and
> engaged in the indiscriminate use of drone warfare in clear
> violation of international law.
>
> Rightwing obstructionism and the waffling of the majority of
> the Democratic Party understandably led to large Republican
> gains in the Congressional elections of 2010. Thereafter, the
> Tea Party-influenced House Republican majority curtailed any
> possibility that the Obama administration would govern in a
> progressive manner. Newly established Republican political
> control over several Midwestern states turned into sweeping
> assaults on public sector unions and on the social safety net.
>
> President Obama's on-and-off flirtation with the neoliberal
> view that fiscal "austerity" is the road out of the Great
> Recession may prove to be his downfall in 2012. As federal
> support for state and local programs faltered in the contrived
> "debt crisis," most Democratic governors and legislators also
> followed suit in slashing social programs and public employee
> benefits. In addition, Obama's openness to "entitlement
> reform" may deny the Democrats the mantle of being the staunch
> protectors of Social Security and Medicare. If the Obama
> administration had fought for -and succeeded in continuing
> beyond - 2010 federal aid to preserve state and municipal
> jobs, today's unemployment rate would be seven percent or
> lower. This is the first recession since the early 1900s in
> which public sector employment has fallen rather than grown.
>
> III. Rebuild the Left by Defeating the Right
>
> In light of the threat that would be posed to basic democratic
> rights by Republican control of all three branches of the
> federal government, most trade union, feminist, LGBTQ and
> African- American and Latino organizations will work
> vigorously to re-elect the president. And in swing states such
> as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and elsewhere, many
> DSA members may choose to do the same. But DSA recognizes that
> an Obama victory, unaccompanied by the strengthening of an
> independent progressive coalition able to challenge the elites
> of both parties, will be a purely defensive engagement in
> lesser-evil politics.
>
> The Left proved too weak to force the first Obama
> administration to respond to popular needs. The Occupy
> movement of fall 2011 gave voice to popular frustration with
> the American plutocracy; but it emerged well after the
> Republicans had gained control of the House. The Left must now
> build upon the accomplishments of Occupy. Democratic
> socialists must work to build a multi-racial coalition of
> working people, the unemployed, indebted students and the
> foreclosed that is capable of forcing politicians to govern
> democratically. The first task of a movement to defend
> democracy is to work for maximum voter turnout in the 2012
> election.
>
> Building such a mass social movement for democracy is DSA's
> major task; the 2012 elections are only a tactical step on
> that strategic path. Thus, while working to defeat the far
> Right, DSA and other progressive forces should work to
> increase the size of the Congressional Progressive, Black and
> Latino caucuses and to elect pro-labor candidates to state
> legislatures. The election this year of Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
> and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with the re-election of
> Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), would increase
> the number of progressive voices in the United States Senate.
>
> DSA locals should use their work in progressive electoral
> campaigns to build coalitions opposed to further slashing of
> federally-funded anti-poverty programs. Such disastrous
> shredding of the social safety net will occur if the cuts
> mandated by the August 2011 "budget compromise" are not
> reversed before January 1, 2013. These "automatic cuts" in
> domestic spending could readily be avoided if Congress
> reversed the Bush and Reagan income tax cuts for the top two
> percent, returned effective corporate tax rates to the levels
> of the 1960s and reduced wasteful defense spending. In our
> educational efforts in favor of progressive economic
> alternatives, DSA locals should draw on the resources of the
> DSA Fund's Grassroots Economics Training for Understanding and
> Power (GETUP) and The Other America is Our America projects.
> GETUP offers a comprehensive critique of neoliberal economic
> thought and policy. The Other America project draws lessons
> from the 50th anniversaries of the publication of The Other
> America (1962); the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and
> Justice; and the 1964 advent of the War on Poverty.
>
> DSA locals should also work against all forms of voter
> suppression, whether onerous photo ID requirements, harassment
> of independent voter registration efforts, or phony purges of
> voter rolls. DSA members should also take part in the voter
> registration and turnout efforts by groups like the NAACP,
> unions and progressive community groups.
>
> DSA locals ought to also join efforts to restrict the role of
> big money in political campaigns, including local efforts in
> favor of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens
> United, to permit public campaign funding and to restrict the
> abuse of "free speech" to buy elections.
>
> This is a year to take the "democratic" part of our democratic
> socialism very seriously. Whatever our analysis of the
> numerous imperfections of US democracy, we should be
> absolutely forthright about championing the rights of the
> people to make their own political decisions.
>
> ==========
>
> ___________________________________________
>
>